UNDESIRABLES

'I set out to write a novel based on the experiences of my grandfather, a young British soldier in the second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902). But a more important story arose with the stunning discovery that this war killed more Boer children in concentration camps than soldiers in combat on both sides.' The British imprisoned thousands of families including Aletta Venter's, in newly devised 'concentration camps'. In a crowded tent with her mother and siblings, Aletta finds ways to cope with the confinement, deprivation and loss, but searches for the rarest of comforts - a bit of adolescent normalcy, perhaps even the spark of forbidden romance. Her weapon of choice in this personal battle is a young girl's powerful sense of hope. The Undesirables (the British term for those who refuse to surrender) is the heart-rending yet life-affirming new book from the top ten bestselling author of Guernica and is an enthralling novel which captures with raw vividness the emotions stirred by war and loss. With useful glossary of Afrikaans, South African terms. While 4,000 Boer combatants were killed in battle in the 2½ year war, an estimated 22,000 of their children perished of disease and malnutrition in these poorly administered and overcrowded camps. And thousands more native Africans also died but no one bothered to count them. The novel is a tribute to the wonderful women who suffered the indignity, loss and anxiety as they watched their children "lying about in a state of collapse" as Emily Hobhouse the British activist described them at the time. 369pp, paperback.